Duff Morgan & Vermont of Norwich - Triumph Car Dealer 40

This article is number 40 in my series about Triumph Car Dealers and features Duff Morgan & Vermont of Norwich.

Some history 

Duff Morgan & Vermont was formed in 1909, by three men: Colonel Granville Duff, John Delmar Morgan and his brother-in-law, Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson. The company is still trading today under the abbreviated name ‘Duff Morgan’ with sites in Norwich and Kings Lynn.

Duff Morgan modern logo

The company had premises in London’s Piccadilly and Norwich. During World War I, Winston Churchill commissioned Duff Morgan to create armoured war vehicles for the Admiralty. These were drafted and manufactured in Piccadilly. At the same time, the company was designing and building cars for the civilian population of Norfolk.

Duff Morgan coach works Norwich

After the end of World War I, Duff Morgan ceased trading in London and focused instead on serving customers purely in Norwich.

Prior to World War 2 Duff Morgan sold many makes of car, including: Adler, Alldays & Onions, De Dion, Ford, Hupmobile, Itala, Opel, Peugeot, Riley, Standard and Swift.

And following the end of World War II, the company was Standard-Triumph’s sole distributor in Norwich and most of the county.

1963

Thanks very much to Chris Barker on flickr for finding these images and allowing me to use them in this blog post.

Duff, Morgan and Vermont Ltd, Norwich 1963 image 01

Duff, Morgan and Vermont Ltd, Norwich 1963 image 02

 More images

Duff Morgan & Vermont (St Giles Gates) Ltd dealer address stamp 1969

Duff Morgan advert from 1975

Show and Service Week promotions

Staff from Standard Triumph HQ visited the business and assisted the firm with week long Show and Service promotions.  These were held by the firm at;: their Victoria Garage, Norwich premises on 13th to 17th April 1959; at St Stephens Street October 31st to November 1st 1960 and on 20th to 24th April 1959, 17th to 21st October 1960, 21st to 25th September 1964, 13th to June 17th1966 and 30th October to 3rd November 1967 at St Giles Gates, 3 Earlham Road, Norwich.

Rear window sticker

Duff Morgan rear window sticker

St Christopher tax disc holder

Duff Morgan St Christopher tax disc holder

Thanks to Graham Andrew who sent me this photo of a Duff Morgan tax disc holder as fitted to his Triumph TR6.

Norfolk Motor Shows

Norwich Triumph distributors, Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd, provided an extensive display at the 1967 annual motor show held at RAF Watton. The show attracted large numbers of local visitors, and in addition to the static displays there are test run facilities and vintage and veteran car displays.

The East African Safari rally Triumph 2000 and Leyland Straight 8 formed part of the display at the 1968 "Motor In" held at Coltishall.

Not just Norwich

Over the years the firm have operated from various different premises not all of them in Norwich.
Guildhall Street, Thetford

Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd currently have premises in Kings Lynn as well as Norwich.

Triumph car dealers in Norwich

I have several dealer directories of Standard Triumph cars. I have extracted information for Norwich here.

1951:
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, Prince of Wales Road.
Maudes of Norwich Ltd, 106-119 Prince of Wales Road.
John L Pointer, The Garage, Aylsham Road.
Willmott's Stores, Ltd, 45-51 Prince of Wales Road.

October 1955:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd, St Stephen's Street and St Stephen's Road
Duff, Morgan & Vermont (St Giles Gates) Ltd, St Giles Gates
John L Pointer, The Garage, Aylsham Road.
Melrose Garage, Melrose Road.

1959:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd, St Stephen's Street and St Stephen's Road
Duff, Morgan & Vermont (St Giles Gates) Ltd, 3 Earlham Road
Boundary Garage (Norwich) Ltd,  Aylsham Road
Harvey Lane Garage, Harvey Lane
Howes & Sons Ltd, Chapel Field North 
Melrose Garage, Melrose Road.

August 1961:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd, St Stephen's Street and St Stephen's Road
Duff, Morgan & Vermont (St Giles Gates) Ltd, 3 Earlham Road
Boundary Garage (Norwich) Ltd,  Aylsham Road
Constitution Motors Ltd,  Constitution Hill
Harvey Lane Garage, Harvey Lane
Melrose Garage, Melrose Road.

February 1965:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont Ltd, St Giles Gates, NOR 01G.
Allenbrooks Service Station, 92-96 Coleman Road,  NOR 62F
Boundary Garage (Norwich) Ltd,  Aylsham Road, NOR 14M
Constitution Motors Ltd,  Constitution Hill, NOR42Q

September 1968:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont, 3 Earlham Road, NOR 01G
Constitution Motors Ltd,  124 Constitution Hill, NOR42Q
W R Ford & Son Ltd, Salhouse
Keyway Service Station Ltd, 420 Dereham Road.

March 1972:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont, Triumph House, Earlham Road, NOR 01G
Harry R Fisk Limited, Norwich Road Garage, Stoke Holy Cross, NOR 56W

March 1974:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont, Triumph House, Earlham Road, NOR 01G
Harry R Fisk Limited, Norwich Road Garage, Stoke Holy Cross, NOR 56W
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, 31 King Street

May 1975:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont, Triumph House, Earlham Road, NOR 01G
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, 31 King Street, NOR 01B

April 1979:
Duff, Morgan & Vermont, Triumph House, 3 Earlham Road, NR2 3RB
Kennings Ltd, 106-110 Prince of Wales Road, NR1 1NU + Parts at Recorder Road NR1 1NR
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, 37 Surrey Street, NR1 3PE

March 1988:
Kenning Norwich, 88 Mile Cross Lane, NB6 6SH
Kenning Parts Centre, Vulcan Road South, NR6 6AE
Kenning Norwich, 162 Cromer Road, NR6 6XA
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, 5 Prince of Wales Road, NR1 1BB
Mann Egerton & Co Ltd, Cromer Road, NR6 6NA

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about Duff Morgan & Vermont, photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

You can read more about  Harry R Fisk Limited, Norwich Road Garage, Stoke Holy Cross in my earlier article.

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to face book page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr gallery of images I have found on Flickr.

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Duff Morgan coach works Norwich image from; Duff Morgan rear window sticker image from Spottedlaurel on flickr; Norfolk motor images from Standard Triumph Review; Duff Morgan St Christopher tax disc holder photo by Graham Andrews; Duff, Morgan and Vermont Ltd, Norwich 1963 images 01 and 02 from the Chris Barker Collection on fleckr.